research project: D-2-1

The goal of this project is to systematically review the fundamental epistemological principles of a theory of diagnostics and inferences in antiquity – principles which are of equal importance for both philosophy and the history of medicine.

Research

Thanks to 20th and 21st century imaging techniques, the localization of inner bodily parts and diagnosis of their proper or defective functioning in real time are now possible and widely practiced. No such access was available in earlier times. In order to clarify and understand which inner bodily states and processes were causing visible symptoms (or – in non-pathological circumstances – manifesting the corresponding natural faculties), medical practitioners and students of human physiology and pathology had to rely on a wide range of experiences and on methods of diagnosis based on epistemological principles and theories of inference from signs. Although Aristotle provides a few pointers on the related methodological issues, it is not until the Hellenistic period that philosophical reflections on this type of inference emerge, and then not without reference to developments in medical theory.

Ancient philosophical and medical approaches to these questions and subjects have been studied and analyzed in depth with the aid of external experts during a number of international workshops in Berlin and abroad: “Hippocrates’ Prognosticon and its Tradition” (October 2013), “Galen’s De Placitis Hippocratis et Platonis VII” (November 2013), “Mental Diseases in Ancient Medicine” (October 2014 in cooperation with the Alexander von Humboldt-chair; acts published 2015) and “Philodemus on sign inference” (July, 2015).

Public lectures helped both to broaden the scope and integrate a more general public. Some of them remain available as podcasts: CMG-Lecture on Ancient Medicine

Christopher Gill (Exeter University) and Heinrich von Staden (Institute for Advanced Study Princeton) participated as Topoi Fellows (2014) in the activities of this research group.